rob-2

Long term Dodge is performance, Chrysler luxury, FIAT economy and Alfa niche Italian performance.

Dodge should have SRT'd the Dart with AWD. Would have sold.

JonBoy

The Dart is probably the worst car I've been in, in the last decade. It is really that bad. It's like they took a Neon and said, "How can we make this worse?" It looks and feels like it was designed by a blind person on a Novocain trip. Absolutely horrible car. There's a reason they don't sell.

vader1

Well, if Dodge is performance, they have three cars. (not minivans,trucks,crossovers) The slated to be cancelled Viper, the Charger and the Challenger. That will be down to two.

For the first quarter of 2016, the Charger is the 43rd best selling car. The Challenger is the 77th. Try to name 76 models and that is how many sell better than the Challenger, Hellcat or no Hellcat.

Chrysler has the 300 after the 200 is scrapped. Hardly a brand. And except for my now deceased grandfather, I don't know anybody who answers "Chrysler" when you say, "Name a luxury auto brand."

Fiat, the brand supposed to help with the fuel economy standards in the corporate umbrella has 2 cars in the top 200 models so far this year, the 500x at number 170, and the 500 at number 173. Both models have sold less than 4,000 units each for the year so far.

Except for Jeeps, Minivans and Crossovers, it is a giant pile of turds. If gas were to spike again, the house of cards that their auto portfolio is based on will need a bailout very fast.

TheDonEffect

The xB sold surprisingly well...
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True but given that americans tend to buy based on name and trends, fiat is a more palatable brand for compacts and potentially midsize sedans than dodge. Since they're essentially starting from scratch, they can come out with some funky cars to build a following and then eventually dull it out as they gain more popularity, especially now that VW is in trouble, I believe Fiat could try and steal some would be jetta/golf owners with their own cars, but those same consumers would not likely shop for a dodge dart. I'm sure they're learning the market and have something in the pipeline. Conversely, people shopping chargers and rams probably won't be cross shopping fiats. In alot of ways it's sorta what BMW did with the mini brand, offering a fwd entry level car but using a brand that caters to that crowd more. When the 500 came out there was a good amount of excitement and I saw a bunch, then they just seem to disappear, so that tells me there's opportunity there, they just need to offer more American appeasing aesthetics. They have a very marketable book of brands that can hit everything in the mainstream market, so as far as marketing goes they're in good shape, they just need to come out with the product now. I hope they don't do what every domestic did in the 80s and 90s and say hey we made a fiat, so lets make a dodge chrysler ram jeep version of it.

Saki GT

Yeah, but Scion and the xB essentially came out of thin air...

Regardless of this OT convo, to the above point, FCA is less a collection of brands than a collection of random vehicles. I'd say Jeep is really the strongest brand it has, followed by RAM, and that is all "trucks".

Wasn't the Dart a re-engineered Fiat?

vader1

Yes.

Probably some of its less than greatness comes from the fact that they rushed it to market.

Jonboy claimed it was the worst car he has ever driven. I have driven two that were far worse...a rental Caliber and a rental last generation Avenger. (And probably add a rental Chevy HHR and Nissan Versa to that list)

I read the reviews of the Avenger when it came out and panned it as dreadful. The reviews were too kind.

Never drove a Dart. The were supposed to be OK, but that just was not good enough when today's market has some pretty nice small cars.

Manga_Spawn

They are hurting and have been for a while. Jeep is about the only Chrysler brand that would likely live on just like it did when AMC bit the dust. I love our Fiat 500 Abarth but when we bought it the dealer was really empty and the Masarati dealer was even more of a ghost town. Of the big 3 they really seem to be the ones that made little to no changes. Ford I feel like did the most and GM has done well in improving just took longer but Chrysler is still really lagging.

gerry100

I think FCA is heavily burdened by Fiat labor contracts and Italian labor laws.

Sergio proposed to GM last year but was rejected.

Jeep is keeping them afloat but it may not be enough to support very expensive product/model development necessary to remain competitive.

Chuck S

Just read the annual Auto Issue (April) of Consumer Reports and you'll realize how dumb anyone has to be to buy a Chrysler or Fiat. Their positions at the bottoms of the ratings are habitual. Even GM cars rank better. If you work for Chrysler (does anyone work for Fiat in the US?) you're stuck if you have to buy one of their cars. Get the Hellcat (or whatever it's called) as it'll probably be worth something on the collector market where value is determined by rarity and little else. I'd consider an Alfa but don't know if any sedans are imported. They were as common as BMWs last summer when I was in France.

-- Chuck

King Tut

Now I know the one person that reads Consumer Reports for their automotive content.

-- King Tut